In recent years terrorist activity has greatly increased. Particularly popular among terrorists is the technique of loading a vehicle with explosives and driving the vehicle at high speed into a building or installation to blow it up and, at the same time, kill as many people as possible. Attempts to thwart such terrorist activities have included the erection of concrete barriers around buildings, the use of around-the-clock security personnel, etc. The recent success of terrorists indicates that these techniques are ineffective.
Concrete barriers are objected to because of their esthetically unpleasing character. Most buildings that are the object of terrorist attack are designed to be pleasing to the eye and the erection of concrete barriers around such buildings destroys their esthetic character. These facts lead me to design the terrorist vehicle barrier described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,507, the specification and drawings of which are incorporated herein by reference. To briefly summarize this prior vehicle barrier, two vertically disposed I-beams have mounted therein conventional telescoping shock absorbers around which are wrapped cables which lie in the path of a terrorist vehicle. The cables and shock absorbers absorb the impact of the vehicle with a minimum of damage to the barrier itself.